Empress Wu Designs with Wilma

  "Santa Claus" dotee dolls - Wilma Simmons   No, not me! I hope every year that I will be ready by 1 December, with no rushing about during the festive season... it doesn't happen..  However this year, I am happy to have met some Christmas deadlines... For my doll makers group, Gumnut Dollies, Newcastle I made some dotee dolls for  decorating the  charity Christmas Tree. What is a dotee doll, I hear you ask... here is an explanation from another earlier blog post , Dotee Divertissement.  Yesterday, I sold some of my  handmade Christmas decorations at the Hunter Art Bazaar - a Christmas market held in a beautiful park, Lambton Park , near my home.  I had been working on these and my crocheted birds while watching TV  during the year - the photo shows a variety of  stitched and beaded decorations.   I was also touched that I was asked to make some Christmas dolls with a multicultural look... I must admit this made me thin...

I Here is flashback to a couple of  years ago - one of the most popular posts and one of my favourites... I hope you enjoy reading it again. I am soon to re photograph these dolls for a publication, so it was timely to republish this post.  Sunday, July 9, 2017 Wednesday's Children and Others. STITCHED UP is now in its third week of exhibition and breaking all records of visitors - such an overwhelming response - so it is inevitable that a few people have had their photos taken with Wednesday's children,  the stick doll installation.... First of all, Ben, a member of the amazing installation team at The Lock-Up. Thanks for taking such care installing 'the girls' - the digital laser level worked wonders and did I hear you talking to a few them?  Ben from the  installation team The Lock-Up  Wednesday's children up on the wall.  Then, of course , my own family - not all posit...

Some art work from 2018 - Wilma Simmons  Reflecting on 2018, I would like to thank everyone who supported and encouraged me and assisted and taught me during the last year. I think it was a really wonderful year - I enjoyed teaching in new places like the Grampians (Victoria)  and the Central Coast as well as in Sydney, Canberra and locally.  I  learnt so much in  workshops with wonderful artists from overseas and within Australia like Jette Clover, Sophie Munns, Gaye Nieuwenhof, Patti Culea  and Bobbi Oliver.  I  was privileged to exhibit at the Embroiderers Guild of NSW and Timeless Textiles Gallery. I have also had  so much fun participating and contributing to groups like NCEATA and Gumnut Dollies in Newcastle and online with Art Dolls Only and Tag Tuesday.  Sometimes, the creative process looks like this for me, but with the support of family and so many talented friends, it all works out well in the end! Best wishes for a...

Advent Blog Day 25  - MERRY CHRISTMAS  Here is my own contribution to the unusual Christmas trees. My tree this year is a wire tree with all 193 stick dolls I made for the "Stitched Up" exhibition, celebrating the lives of 193 girls, inmates of the  Newcastle Industrial School 1867-1871 (a NSW government welfare institution).  The safety pins as hangers  are deliberate  as the girls had to work at "stitching" while they were at the school, so at Christmas they have some time off - no sewing, safety pins will do.  Thank you for following this Advent Blog these last 25 days.... 

Amendment - Since writing this post, I have found out that this art doll was created by   doll,  artistNeva Waldt,  entitled "Gertrude finds the perfect holiday wrap "  For more like this go to  t his Pinterest page     Advent  Blog : Day 16 - Dollies  Strictly speaking, these are not alternatives to a traditional tree, but I just had to include them.  Those of you who know me know that one of my passions is doll making. This is  a special blog post to wish all my friends at Gumnut Dollies, Newcastle , Original Doll Artists of Australia and Art Dolls Only a merry Christmas.   Many professional doll artists like Cindy Moyer like to create Christmas  tree themed dolls, using a mixture of techniques and media, publishing their patterns. Others make dolls for their own enjoyment or as a response to a Christmas challenge in a group. The reasons for creating Christmas dolls varies as much as the techniq...

Art Dolls only hosted a Midsummer Challenge  for doll makers around the world.... here are some of the beautiful dolls made in response to the challenge. 

Another week of Arty Alphabet ( Instagram challenge #everydaycreativeatoz) .....  J : Jolly Jesters - little handmade dolls from an elinorpeace bailey pattern.   K: Kangaroo -  Australian applique on a background of paper and fabric with an overlay of organza and stitching L: Lino cut print -  only my second attempt at lino block printing   M: Mask - blackwork embroidered mask  N: Needle cases - I own quite a few, some made by me - the beautiful beaded one was made for me by my daughter-in-law.  O: Origami - It took me a long while to learn to do this, but finally got there, with tuition from my mother.  P: Penguin soft toys - Just finished last week for a challenge at Gumnut Dollies Newcastle. We were challenged to create something with a Christmas theme from a free downloadable internet pattern.  The pattern comes from PurlSoho. 

Rose Keemun, Masala Chai, Lady Grey - art dolls.  In my exhibition I have a series of art dolls/mixed media sculptures which personify teas. Here are three... not quite finished but just needing some finishing touches. All the fabrics are either tea dyed, overdyed with tea, or dipped in tea. Rose Keemun tea is Keemun black tea with rose petals - a lovely delicate blend . Masala Chai is black tea brewed with a mixture of Indian spices and herbs - green cardamom pods, cinnamon sticks, ground cloves, ground ginger and black peppercorn. Lady Grey is a tea scented with oil of bergamot, with hints of lemon peel and orange peel oil. It is a very "young" tea, first being produced for the Scandanavian market by Twinings in 1994. Exhibition : " Leaves of Distinction" 18 September - 12 October 2014 Timeless Textiles, 90 Hunter Street, Newcastle East. NSW Opening 6pm - 8pm  THURSDAY 18 September. 2014

This week, I finally put the finishing stitches to these little dolls which have been on my work table for some time. You will see that for most of them I used fabric with a horse motif. These were all meant to be ready  for the beginning of the Chinese New Year  "Year of the Horse"  ... Here is the basic process I've used for making these  .... 1. Draw a basic shape,  2. Use it as a template   3. Sew around the outside of the template with the right sides of fabric together  4. Cut from the doubled fabric, leaving a small seam.  5. Turn right side out ( turning tubes are useful)  6. Cut a small slit where the polymer clay face mask will cover. 7. Stuff polyfill through the opening to fill the shape firmly. 8. Stitch up the opening  9. Embroider a  free form design and add beads.  10. Make a small face mask from polymer clay. ( You can use a commercial mould as I did or sculpt your own.)  ...